Combined churn and butter-worker.



REUBEN IB. DISBROW, 0F OWATONNA, MINNESOTA.

COMBINED GHURN AND BUTTER-WORKER.

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Specification of Letters Patent.

PatentedJune 18, 1912.

Application filed. December 27, 1909. Serial No. 535,193.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, REUBEN B. Disnnow, a citizen of the United States, residing at Owatonna, in the county of Steele and State of Minnesota, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Combined Churns and Butter-WVorkers; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will. enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My present invention relates to combined churns and butter-workers and has for its especial object to improve the butter-working action of the machine.

To the above end, the invention consists of the novel devices and combinations of devices hereinafter described and defined in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings which illustrate the invention, like characters in dicate like parts throughout the several views.

Referring to the drawings, Figure 1 is a view, partly in plan and partly in horizontal section, showing the improved machine; Fig. 2 is a transverse vertical sec-- tion taken on the line 92 00 of Fig. 1; and Fig. 3 a fragmentary view'in end elevation, showing a portion of a drum and a lever and latch mechanism for operating a so-called lifting shelf, which latter is located within the drum.

The numeral 1 indicates a horizontal or approxinnitely horizontal rotary drum, the heads of which are provided with rigidly secure-d axially projecting trunnions 2 and 3 journaled in bearings afforded by the end brackets of a suitable framework at. The trunnion 2 is a hollow trunnion, and a large driving sheave 5 is shown as secured to the projecting end thereof.

Located within the drum, is an axially disposed roller 6, the shaft 7 of which, at one end, extends through, and is journa'led in the hollow trunnion 2, and its outer end is shown as provided with a relatively small pulley 8. The working roller 6 is preferably made' square; and it is provided with a multiplicity of longitudinally spaced gently projecting butter-working blades 9.

To secure the best action, these blades 9 are spirally arranged on the roller 6 and, at their inner ends, are preferably set into seats or notches formed in the fiat faces of said roller and rigidly secured thereto by nails, screws or other suitable devices. In its preferred arrangement, there are eight of these blades 9, the adjacent members being secured to the adjacent flat sides of the square roller, so that the said blades are arranged in pairs, that is, there will always be two blades in the same plane engaging the butter at the same time;

The drum 1 is provided with a peripheral opening normally closed with a water-tight joint by a door 10 of the usual or any suitable construction. The drum will be rotated in the direction of the arrow marked thereon in Fig. 2, and the working roller will be rotated in a reverse direction, to-wit, in the direction of the arrow marked adjacent thereto in Fig. 2, and, furthermore, the said roller should be rotated at a considerably higher speed than the drum, pref erably at the rate of four to one. This may be readily accomplished by a pair of belts running over a wide face pulley on a countershaft, not shown, and over the pulleys 5 and 8, one of said belts being crossed so as to reverse the direction of the roller in respect to the drum. Any other suitable drum and roller driving mechanism may, however, be employed.

Located within the drum, is a quite wide shelf 11., that extends from head to head of the drum andis provided at its ends, near its inner edge, with trunnions l2 journaled to the heads of the drum, close to the shell of the drum, so that the said shelf may be turned from its operative position (shown by the full lines in Fig. 2) into an inoperative position against the shell of the drum (shown by the dotted lines in Fig. One of the trunnions 12 is extended through the adjacent head of the drum. and, as shown, also through a stuffing box formed in the hub ofa latch plate 13, secured by screws or otherwise to the outer surface of the said drum head, and provided with a laterally projecting segmental fiange 14 formed with lock notches 15 and 16. To the'outer endof this projecting trunnion 12, a small operating lever or hand piece 17 is pivotally connected with freedom for lateral movements, so that it may be engaged with and disengaged from the notches 15 and 16. A small spring 18, secured to the outer end of said projecting trunnion, yieldingly presses the lever 17 into engagement with the alined notch 15 or 16. WVhen the lever 17 is engaged with the notch 15, the shelf 11 will be turned radially inward to its operative position (shown by the full lines in Fig. 2), and when the said lever is engaged with the notch 16, the said shelf will be set in its inoperative position (shown by the dotted lines in Fig. 2). It will also be noted that the shelf 11, in respect to the direction of the rotation of the drum, is below or backward of the door .10.

At points, both in advance and at the rear of the door 10 and the shelf 11, the drum is provided with butter-engaging flights 19, and between the two sets of flights, the said drum is preferably provided with several staggered sets of circumferentially extended segmental divider blades 20.

In the churning action, the shelf 11 should be set in its operative position (shown by the full lines in Fig. 2), so that it will very greatly assist in agitating the cream. The blades 9 of the working roller 6 will also very greatly agitate the cream and further assist in the churning action.

In the butter-working action, the shelf 11 should be turned into its inoperative position (shown by the dotted lines in Fig. 2), so that the body of butter will not be lifted bodily but, under the rotation of the drum, the lower portion of the body of but ter will be carried continuously upward, while the upper portion of the body of butter will be engaged by the blades 9 of the working roller and driven backward and, furthermore, rapidly cut into a multiplicity of chunks by the said blades. The flights 19 and also the divider blades assist in carrying the lower portion of the body of butter upward, and the natural tendency of the body of butter to roll backward under the action of gravity is further insured by the action of the blades of the working roller. These blades, acting two at a time, out chiuiks from the butter at points by continually shifting from one end to the other of the churn. The chunks of butter, cut from'the main body, of course, immediately drop and are reunited with the mass, but the thorough working of the butter is thereby accomplished. Furthermore, as is evident, the working of the butter is continuous rather than intermittent, as is the case in churns where the main mass of butter is carried bodily upward and then fed downward between rollers, for example. The so-called divider blades 20, by cutting circumferentially extended grooves in the mass of butter, also assist in the butter-working action.

When the butter has been properly worked, the shelf 11 should then be turned into its operative position and the churn should then be given another rotation so as to collect the butter in a compact mass and to raise and support the butter in position, from which the butter may be readily removed through the peripheral opening normally closed by the door 10.

The efficiency of the churn herein disclosed and claimed has been demonstrated in practice. The .quality of the butter,

which has been worked thereby, has been found to be of very high test and character; furthermore, the continuous working action of the machine renders the same of high capacity, and, furthermore, it has been found that comparatively light power will serve to operate this machine as a churn and a butter-worker.

That I claim is:

1. The combination with a horizontal rotary drum and a working roller within said drum, the said drum having a normally closed peripheral door, of a shelf pivotally mounted within said drum close to one side of said door and located radially outward from said roller, and means for securing said shelf in dififerent positions, substantially as described.

2. The combination with a horizontally disposed rotary drum provided with internal lifting flights and internal circumferentially extended divider bars, of a working roller axially disposed within said drum and provided with projecting blades adapted to continuous action on the butter under rotation of the drum, and means for rotating said drum and roller in reverse directions, substantially as described.

3. The combination with a horizontal rotary drum and a working roller axially disposed therein, said drum having a normally closed peripheral door and a shelf pivotally mounted within said drum in the vicinity of said door, and means extending to the exterior of the drum for moving said shelf from an operative position into an inoperative position and vice versa, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

REUBEN B. DISBROIV. WVitnesses:

ALICE V. SwANsoN, HARRY D. KILGORE.

Gopies'of this patent may be obtained for 'five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. G. a 

